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Review: Ridge Street Audio Midnight Silver Edition GEN. II Interconnect

Category: Cables

Associated Music:

Patricia Barber Companion
Count Basie 88 Basie Street
Tracy Chapman New Beginning
Golden String Audio Repertory Top 12 In Gold
Norah Jones Come Away With Me
Luther Kent Luther Kent & Trick Bag Live
Diana Krall Live In Paris
Hugh Masekela Hope
Buddy Rich Keep the Customer Satisfied
Sonny Rollins This Is What I Do
Santana Supernatural
Keb Mo
The Phip Collins Big Band "A Hot Night In Paris"

Many of you might remember that in May of 2003 I wrote a review on the Ridge Street Audio Midnight Silver Edition Interconnect. Since that time, Robert C. Schult, proprietor/designer, has developed a Midnight Silver Edition Generation II Interconnect.

Since I was thoroughly impressed with the original interconnect and speaker cable, I could not imagine what improvements could have been made. Therefore, out of curiosity, I had to hear the Midnight Silver Edition Generation II.

I recommend you read the original review first (http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?rcabl&1052269499&openusid&zzLak&4&5#Lak) to better understand this current review of the Midnight Silver Edition Generation II Interconnect.

The Midnight Silver Edition Generation II interconnects continue to be extremely smooth, fast, neutral and transparent. They don’t favor one frequency over another and continue to be very coherent, allowing one to hear deep within a recording. The Midnight Silver Edition Generation II Interconnects continue to convey the force, speed and robustness of a live music performance (if the rest of your system is capable of handling it).

The improvements I heard, original Midnight Silver Edition vs. the Generation II, are as follows:

1) I hesitate to use the cliche, but the music sounded as if a veil had been lifted. In a very positive respect, the music sounded more forward (but relaxed), as if I had changed my seating at a live concert and moved several rows closer to the stage.

2) The mids and highs were crisper, while the entire spectrum of music was even more dynamic in the area of micro details and resolution.

3) There was more bass slam.

I did notice that while the original Midnight Silver Edition sounded good as soon as I installed them, they continued to improve with two hours of use. The Generation IIs sounded good as soon as they were installed; however, they matured and sounded even better after four hours of use.

When I received the Generation II interconnects, the literature which was included inside of the package stated they were the Generation II. When I compared my original Midnight Silver Edition to the Generation II, they looked identical (although the generation II was an improvement in sound as stated above). I assume in the future there will be some type of permanent marking designating them as Generation II.

Construction of the Midnight Silver Edition interconnects continues to be excellent.

I continue to highly recommend you give the Midnight Silver Edition Original or Generation II a try if you are in the market for interconnects.



Associated gear
Parasound C/BD-2000 Belt Drive Transport
Dodson Audio DA-217 mkII DA converter / Upgrade to 218 software
First Sound Presence Tube preamp / with upgreded power supply
Cary Audio Design CAD-2a3 SE Tube amp
Bel Canto Evo 200.2 Digital Amp
Cain & Cain Abby Speaker with Fostex FE 199 E driver
Fostex T90A Horn Super Tweeter
Velodyne F-1200x Subwoofer
Ridge Street Audio Designs Midnight Silver Edition Interconnects and Speaker Cables
i2Digital Interconnect
Bass Euphoria Speaker cable
Purist Audio Proteus Rev.B Power cord (20 amp IEC)
BMI Whale Elite MK II Power cord
BMI Shark Power cord
Absolute Power Cords Cryogenically Treated
#4 VH Audio Flavor Cryo’d power cable
220 Amp Isolation Transformer feeding dedicated sub-panel
Equi=Tech 2Q AC Balanced-filter
Clear Image T-4 power line isolator
DeZorel G2 power line isolator
Sistrum Platform SP-6 Rack
Star Sound Audio Points/Coupling Disc's Tweak
Star Sound SP 004 Sistrum Platforms Tweak
Bybee Quantum Force Filters (IC’s) Tweak
Bybee Quantum Speaker Filters Tweak
Virtual Dynamic Cryo'd # 10 Copper Wire & Breaker Tweak
Hubbell’s 5362 Tweak
Wattgate 381 Outlet Tweak
Furutech Outlet Tweak
Acme Silver Cryo’d Outlet Tweak
Polycrystal Cable Towers Tweak


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Ridge Street Audio Midnight Silver Edition
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miker
16 posts
 
Lak,

Components are:

Musical Fidelity 3.2 CD Player
Musical Fidelity Nuvista M3 amp
Dynaudio Contour 1.3 mk II speakers
Ridge Street Audio midnight silver S/C and I/Cs.

I realize that this system is unbalanced with the cables and amp a level higher then the speakers and CD player. I do plan to eventually upgrade the speakers and CD player. Actually, if it wasn't for the fact that I needed longer speaker cables, I probably would have upgraded the speakers before the cables. I am glad now that I didn't, because I can now hear what these speakers are fully capable of.
psychicanimal
1,738 posts
 
I got my set of Gen II's this afternoon! What can I say? Well, first that Robert asked me to send him my set of MSE so that he could burn them in on this new cable cooker he had devised. The Gen I and II's were to be shipped back together. Now my cables were going to have the cooking as a constant, not a variable. I plugged the new ICs while I was mopping my kitchen and laundry room and said to myself; "what the hell, I'll start breaking them in while I finish cleaning..." I was playing this new salsa CD I got at a Latin festival two weeks ago, "Sammy de León". He's the hottest young timbales player out there and this is his first CD. This CD is the first Latin release of a small independent label speciallizing in jazz & classical music, so the recording quality is there. I could hear more horn energy, deeper, tighter bass, more musical content and while I was cleaning the bathroom I heard a timbales solo snap with such force I said to myself, "These cables are a definite improvement!" I always say that if I do an upgrade to my system and I can hear the improvement in the next room then it's worth it. The Gen II is worth it.
satfrat
64 posts
 
Hi PA & Lak, I would like to hear both you and Lak’s review on a complete set of Ridge Street cabling thruout your systems. Your impressions on system synergy obtained from Robert`s complete line of Midnight Silver Edition IC`s, digital link, and speaker cable. Knowing Robert, everything he makes is made to complement each other and jell to perfection as it will ultimitely highlight his own system. BTW, I`ve just installed Robert`s IC`s, speaker cable, & a double Bybee digital link in my newly put together system that includes 2 Butler Audo 3150 tube amps and a Sunfire Theater Grand 3 processor, all connected with VenHaus flavor 3&4 PC`s. It`ll be awhile before this stew`s ready for the dinner table as I`m still waiting for 6 new speakers. But I have no doubts that when it all comes together, I`ll be in for something special indeed. Regards, Robin
psychicanimal
1,738 posts
 
Miker, your system is decent--what you might need is to tackle power delivery/noise control and room acoustics. The first one should be rather simple--take a look at Lak's rig. It is similar to mine (except that I'm a nomad)and you can do something along those lines pretty inexpensively. A 220V/110V transformer, two dedicated lines w/ cryo'ed outlets and some good, inexpensive power cords will take you really far. I would suggest a second 110V isolation transformer for your CDP.

Robin, I'm glad you're getting new speakers...
lak's avatar
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lak OP
3,516 posts
 

Satfrat,

In my current tube system I have one pair of the SME IC’s, one pair of SME Gen.II IC’s, MSE speaker cable and two pair of MSE hook-up wire inside my Abby’s and connecting the Fostex T90A Horn super tweeter to the crossover.

I added each item separately, with at least a week in-between each added piece.

Each time I added an item as described above everything associated with good sounding music improved and the synergy continued to improve overall.

In a week or so, I should receive a second pair of the SME Gen.II IC’s and a set of the SME Gen.II speaker cables. At that time I could provide additional information.

To the best of my knowledge (if I’m incorrect, someone please correct me) the Ridge Street power cords and digital cable are not available yet. I think they would also be interesting to audition in my systems.

Regards,
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